Lakeville North activities director seeks transfer after second DWI arrest

Article by: Herón Márquez Estrada

Star Tribune

March 5, 2013 - 2:18 PM

Bob Ertl, the activities director at Lakeville North High School, is leaving his post just over a month after vowing to stay on despite two DWI arrests.

Ertl, who pleaded guilty in December to driving while intoxicated, submitted a request to leave his job, and the Lakeville school board accepted it during a meeting on Feb. 26.

Ertl is asking to return to teaching. It is unclear where in the district he would end up or what he would be teaching.

Lakeville Superintendent Lisa Snyder said Ertl, in an e-mail to the district, said he was seeking the switch in order to spend more time with his family and also to get back to the classroom.

She said the switch is not at the behest of the district, which agreed in January to let him continue as activities director at North, a job that pays more than $100,000 a year.

Despite that agreement, there was the possibility that Ertl would have lost his activities director job at the end of the school year because the district is reorganizing administrators as part of a projected $3.5 million budget shortfall.

The school board was to be presented with a preliminary plan for budget cuts, and a hearing on the cuts will be held on March 19, Snyder said.

Snyder said one of the proposals is to go from having two activities directors, one at each high school, to having just one.

Snyder said that until Ertl submitted his request, the plan was for him to apply for the new activities job if he desired.

Ertl pled guilty Dec. 20 to gross misdemeanor DWI after being arrested in June. The 2012 arrest was the second time in four years that Ertl has been charged with DWI. In 2008, he was arrested and charged but a plea bargain dropped that to careless driving.

The second arrest sparked letters to the school board and superintendent, calls for Ertl to be fired or replaced, and questions from students and parents about how he could continue to do his job, which includes disciplining students for drug and alcohol offenses.

Ertl worked out a plan with the district to continue his job, including going through rehab for a drinking problem.